Kakamega Forest National Reserve
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Kakamega Forest National Reserve
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| location |
Kakamega County , Kenya
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| surface | 44 km² | |
| WDPA ID | 7420 | |
| Geographical location | 0 ° 17 ' N , 34 ° 51' E | |
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| Setup date | 1985 | |
| administration | Kenya Wildlife Service | |
The Kakamega Rainforest (English: Kakamega Forest National Reserve) is a rainforest in western Kenya , around the place Kakamega . It is the easternmost tip of the equatorial rainforest and the only tropical (lowland) rainforest in Kenya.
Around 1900 the forest was still 240,000 hectares in size, of which only 23,000 hectares are left today, i.e. less than a tenth. Causes are human activities such as the extraction of firewood and pasture areas, cultivation of the soil, radical deforestation or the excessive collection of medicinal plants. In 1985 around 4400 hectares in the northern part of the forest were designated as a nature reserve.
The rainforest is home to a unique variety of rare plants, mammals, birds, insects, reptiles and amphibians. Normally the forest has a 90% closed sun canopy, but half of this sun canopy has now disappeared, threatening the natural habitat of many species and some have already disappeared.
Protective measures
In the Kakamega rainforest, various activities to save the forest are currently underway, such as the KEEP ( Kakamega Environmental Education Program ), which promotes sustainable tourism or informs school children, or the gentle use of medicinal plants through the guidance of the population through the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi .
Web links
- Kenya Wildlife Service - Kakamega Forest National Reserve ( Memento from February 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ World Database on Protected Areas - Kakamega Forest National Reserve (English)
- ↑ Kenya Wildlife Service - Kakamega Forest National Reserve ( Memento from February 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)